FEBRUARY 3

Between February 4, when the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decision on the granting of oil concessions in Grozny, and March 29, when the "Basic Principles of Concession Agreements" were approved, Lenin conducted extensive work both on familiarizing himself with materials illuminating the situation of the oil fields in Baku and Grozny, and on the study of specialized questions connected with the oil industry. Between February 8 and 16, Lenin familiarized himself with a report by L. B. Krasin "On the Danger of the Loss of Oil-Bearing Areas and on Concessions in Baku and Grozny," addressed to the Central Committee of the RCP; on February 19, with a second report by L. B. Krasin "Concessions for the Development of Oil in Grozny," written after L. Krasin had familiarized himself with the opinions of specialists of the Main Oil Committee (Glavkoneft) on the question of concessions. The reports of specialists were presented by the chairman of Glavkoneft Z. N. Dosser to the chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy A. I. Rykov in a brief memorandum by Z. Dosser. These reports were forwarded to Lenin by A. I. Rykov. On February 23, Lenin had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the following documents: 1) A memorandum by Dosser "On the Question of the Threat of Flooding of Oil-Field Districts and on the Granting of a Concession for Part of the Developed Areas for the Purpose of Combating Flooding"; 2) A memorandum by a member of the collegium of Glavkoneft Gubkin "On the Situation in the Oil-Bearing Regions of the Republic"; 3) A memorandum by A. I. Tsevchinskii, manager of the commodity-operational section of Glavkoneft, "On the Question of Water Encroachment in Oil Deposits in the Baku District"; 4) A note by I. I. Strizhov, manager of the technical section of Glavkoneft, "On the Question of Flooding of Oil Deposits"; 5) A report by N. N. Smirnov, manager of the field section. All documents except the last have been preserved in the Archive of the Institute and are published here with Lenin's annotations and underlinings. In addition to Lenin's orders, there was a report by the authorized representative of the Council of Labor and Defense on the extraction and export of oil (Giz, Azertsentralpechat, 1920), which Lenin worked through at the same time.

As is evident from the secretarial notes, Lenin worked on the materials listed above on February 23, and on the same day turned to the specialists of Glavkoneft with a request to provide literature on foreign legislation ensuring rational conduct of the oil economy. On the basis, apparently, of Lenin's study of these materials, the "Basic Principles of Concession Agreements" were worked out, transmitted by him to Rykov and made the basis for the Council of People's Commissars resolution of March 29 published below (see pp. 448–449).